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| Coach Lin Dunn reacts after having a banner raised in her name at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. (Photo: Brent Drinkut/The Star) |
Lin Dunn is about as far from being a New Yorker as her Southern drawl indicates. She's a Tennessee native, but it's fitting that one of the last stops in Dunn's career was in New York at the world's most famous arena.
"I love playing here," Dunn said Sunday."It's a unique arena in a historic city."
Sitting in an empty locker room in the bowels of Madison Square Garden Dunn, 67, talked with reporters after losing her final regular season game against the New York Liberty.
"I don't think I could live here though the traffic is terrible," Dunn said. "We were across the street and it took us 20 minutes to get to the arena."
In a career that's seen her lead teams to the NCAA Final Four, a WNBA Finals Championship in 2012, and being inducted into seven different halls of fame it makes sense that the mecca of basketball get one last chance to see her impact on the game.
Her Indiana Fever went 3-1 against the Liberty this season including clinching a 10th consecutive playoff appearance with a win over New York last Thursday night - tying a WNBA record (Seattle Storm 2004-13.)
Another trip to the WNBA Finals would cap off a storied career that started over 40 years ago.
After only two years of high school basketball Dunn's playing career ended when she arrived at the University of Tennessee-Martin which didn't have a women's basketball team. "It was too rough for girls; it was not socially acceptable," Dunn said.
Dunn began coaching in 1970 at Austin Peay several years before Title IX legislation was passed. She has seen how far women's athletics have evolved since then.
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| A young Lin Dunn coaching at Austin Peay in the early 70s. (Photo: Emily Diekelmann) |
After nine successful years at Purdue, including a trip to the 1994 Women's NCAA Final Four, Dunn ventured off to the professional ranks beginning in the American Basketball League.
Dunn coached parts of three seasons for the Portland Power before the league abruptly folded due to financial difficulties on December 22, 1998.
"I was a part of the ABL when they started, but we really didn't have the resources to sustain it," Dunn said.
She was part of the group that started the Seattle Storm in 2000 and began a 14 year coaching career in the WNBA, the last seven as head coach of the Fever.
Although Dunn is retiring from coaching, she won't be too far from the sidelines. "I'm going to be around the game...I'll be a consultant with the Fever for another year for sure," Dunn said.
Dunn was one of the foremost pioneers for women in sports when she began her career and she hopes to continue inspiring others, this time away from the basketball court. "Now I want to do something else, I want to get involved with women's social rights," Dunn said.
She is also looking forward to a more open schedule and traveling where she wants, when she wants. "I'm not going to miss arguing with the refs; I'm not going to miss the 6:30 AM bus I have in the morning...and I don't want to be tied down," Dunn said. "If I want to go to the Grand Canyon next weekend I'm going to do it. If I want to fly to Australia I'm going to do it."
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| Lin Dunn and Tamika Catchings hope to lead the Fever to another WNBA Championship. (Photo: Sam Riche) |
So whenever Lin Dunn's career concludes, whether it be an early ouster from the playoffs or another WNBA Championship what will the legendary coach miss most? The trip to the Final Four? The 2012 WNBA Championship? The countless halls of fame she's been inducted into?
"The coaches, the staff, the players," Dunn said. "I think I'll miss the people more than anything."
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